Amnesty lawyer faults N100m SERAP judgment, recalls Ribadu defence

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project defended Nuhu Ribadu when the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman was being persecuted by the government over his anti-corruption activities.

Now, the civil society organisation is facing a N100m defamation judgment in favour of two Department of State Services officials, with Ribadu serving as National Security Adviser in the same administration.

The contrast was highlighted by legal adviser at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat, Kolawole Olaniyan, in an opinion article titled, “When the state turns the law against dissent under Tinubu’s watch.”

Olaniyan recalled that SERAP had campaigned against Ribadu’s removal as EFCC chairman in 2008, when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua administration sent him on what was described as a “refresher course” after removing him from the anti-graft agency.

According to him, SERAP condemned the decision, petitioned the United Nations over Ribadu’s removal and threatened legal action concerning his replacement.

He added that after Ribadu survived assassination attempts later that year, SERAP demanded an investigation and protection for his life.

Olaniyan further recalled that Ribadu became the inaugural recipient of the Civil Society Anti-Corruption Defender Award in 2009, an initiative he said he helped establish to recognise activists, human rights defenders and civil society organisations fighting corruption.

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, which was part of the award jury alongside SERAP, WARDC, HEDA and CDHR, confirmed that Ribadu received the inaugural award in 2009.

The centre said Ribadu was honoured for his “courage and commitment to the fight against corruption” and for the “persecution, harassment and intimidation” he had suffered from Nigerian authorities because of his anti-corruption work.

It is against that history that Olaniyan drew attention to SERAP’s current legal battle involving DSS officials.

In September 2024, SERAP alleged that DSS operatives had unlawfully occupied its Abuja office and demanded to see its directors after the organisation called on President Bola Tinubu to investigate allegations of corruption and mismanagement involving the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Two DSS officials, Sarah John and Gabriel Ogundele, subsequently sued SERAP and its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, over the organisation’s publications concerning the incident.

The officials alleged that SERAP’s publications falsely portrayed them as having invaded the organisation’s office.

The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, in a judgment delivered by Justice Yusuf Halilu on May 5, 2026, found SERAP liable for defamation and awarded N100m in damages to the two officials.

The court also ordered SERAP to publish apologies to the claimants, pay N1m in litigation costs and pay 10 per cent annual post-judgment interest on the damages until the judgment is fully satisfied.

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SERAP has appealed the judgment and sought a stay of execution, describing the decision as legally and procedurally flawed.

In its appeal, the organisation challenged, among other issues, the court’s treatment of the parties, the evidence relied upon and the application of principles of defamation law.

The DSS, however, has distanced itself from the suit as an institutional action.

Following the judgment, the service said the case was not instituted by the DSS but by John and Ogundele in their personal capacities after they allegedly felt defamed by SERAP’s publications.

The agency said an internal investigation was conducted and that the officers obtained approval from the Director-General of the DSS before seeking legal redress.

For Olaniyan, the development is particularly striking because of SERAP’s previous role in defending Ribadu when he was on the receiving end of government pressure.

“SERAP repeatedly defended Ribadu when he was targeted for confronting corruption,” Olaniyan wrote, recalling the organisation’s intervention after his removal from the EFCC.

He described the present circumstances as an irony, writing that “the same organisation that once defended Ribadu against harassment, intimidation and threats to his life is now facing similar tactics of harassment and intimidation for doing its own human rights work.”

Olaniyan said the contrast raised broader questions about the relationship between security institutions and civil society organisations under the Tinubu administration.

“Today, under Ribadu’s watch as National Security Adviser, the DSS is weaponising the judicial system against SERAP and other critics,” he wrote.

However, the DSS’s position is that the defamation action was a personal suit by the two officers rather than a case instituted by the agency itself.

Olaniyan’s article placed the SERAP case alongside other disputes involving the DSS and critics of the government, including its legal challenge to Prof Pat Utomi’s proposed “shadow government” and the cybercrime prosecution of activist and journalist Omoyele Sowore over social media comments about Tinubu.

He also pointed to President Tinubu’s own remarks on criticism in his 2025 Democracy Day address, when the President said Nigerians should not suffer injustice merely for writing a bad report about him or calling him names.

“No one should bear the brunt of injustice for merely writing a bad report about me or calling me names,” Tinubu said, adding that democracy required “a fair degree of tolerance for harsh words and stinging insults.”

Olaniyan said the President’s statement stood in contrast to what he described as the growing use of security and legal mechanisms against critics and civil society organisations.